Weight-Loss 2014 Orange and Purple Party Games Challenge

Weight-Loss
Omega

Omega

Moderator
There are two teams the Orange team and the Purple team.

Both teams start with 7 players. If people drop out and either team is left with less than three reporting members - then the challenge will automatically move into an individual phase.

New people can join at any time - simply contact me and I will figure out the fairest way to incorporate them into the team structure...

Start and weekly weighings can be taken on either the Friday or the Saturday...

At the end of each week - update that line of the scoresheet to reflect your weight, weight change and percentage change accomplished during that week. Also show the exercise minutes accomplished.

I will only give points for a maximum of 300 minutes during the week - so 300 minutes is the maximum amount of minutes that should be reported here. Naturally - people can do more exercise than this (I certainly do more exercise than this myself).

I will also set a daily task - which may be in one or more parts....

If it is in 1 part - this can be easily recorded with characters for every day of the week completed

eg a single task completed every day YYYYYYY, a single task completed on just mon,wed,thurs, fri --Y-YYY
eg two tasks completed every day YYYYYYY + yyyyyyy, two tasks - one completed on 4 days and the other completed on 3 days Y--YY-Y + yy-y---

Scoresheets should be completed by 8am Sunday GMT so that I can update my records on a Sunday. I will not chase players for scoresheets which have not been completed. A scoresheet line is deemed to total zero points until a weight is entered at the end of the week.

A scoresheet entry will only be complete when an end of week weight is entered.

If someone who didnt complete their scoresheet in time has still not completed their scoresheet by the end of the following week - they will be deemed to have resigned from the challenge - and that team will be considered to have one less player.

If either team has less members than the other - then dummy members will be added to even things up for the appropriate weeks... Dummy members will be allocated an average of the points earned by the other team members.

Points given

Weight loss - 1 point for every 0.1% of weight lost during the week - this means that if someone loses 1% of their challenge start weight they earn 10 points. A weight gain results in a points deduction for weight loss.

Exercise - 1 point for every 15 minutes of exercise during the week - to the maximum of 300 minutes or 20 points.

Bonus task - a total of 3 points may be earned each day by completing one or more tasks.


Weight loss points

A note on how this works:
All weight loss percentages are in relation to your weight at the start of the challenge.
When you weigh yourself, enter this as your current weight and the start weight in the calculator.

You then get the percentage lost during the whole challenge to date which you mark on your scoresheet.
Subtract the percentage for the whole challenge to date for the previous week to get the percentage loss for the week being reported.
Since this is calculated each week - any fractions will be rewarded in due course. We therefore do not award fractions of a point.

Fractions of a point are not awarded for exercise.
 
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Week 1 task

There are two parts to this bonus

I will give 2 points for each day where you record all food and drink. No need for quantities or measurements - simply log a whole list and do not forget about things.
It is ok to say for instance sugar free sweets without saying how many.

We all know which food are the naughty things. We know when we have sugary sweets, cakes, biscuits, crisps etc that it isnt going to help us to lose weight. We know that there may be healthier options than pizza or chips.

We are only human - and things do tempt us at times. Sometimes we resist - and other times we don't. The purpose is to identify the naughty things on our daily list and identify how we were feeling. It may give us insight.

I will give 1 point for every day where we analyse our moods - we do not need to post whether we were stressed, celebratory, sad, felt peer pressure... In many ways it is no-one's business but your own - but I do think that there is value in being aware of why we do things.
 
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Week 2 task

Many of us don't consistently get enough water each day. It's important for our bodies to be properly hydrated for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it helps our bodies to function well, helps our skin, and the biggest reason for us is that when we're dehydrated, our bodies hold on to the water it has, causing water retention, making the number on the scale higher. When we're properly hydrated, that excess water is flushed out of our systems. Proper hydration also helps prevent constipation--along with fibre.

So this week's challenge is to drink at least 1oz (29.5735ml) of water for every 2lbs of your weight. 2 points for each day. For those of you doing metric, just round down to the nearest whole number. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs you divide it by 2, giving you 100. 100 X 29.5735= 2,957.35. So you'd drop off the .35 and drink 2,957ml of water per day. Or, 1kg= 32.53ml of water.

I remember only too well how that can translate into quite a lot of water if we are on the big side.
I will therefore allow people to claim a reduced level of 1 point if they didnt manage it - but managed to drink at least 2 litres. This should encourage people to at least have some water and not just quit without trying - convinced that they could never do it...

I do however think that logging food like we have done in week 1 is very important to keep us aware of what we are really having... I will therefore give 1 point if you continue to log food in your team thread.

That makes a total of three bonus points that you can claim every day.

If I manage to drink my full allocation of water on 4 days and manage to have at least 2 litres on 2 days plus logged my food on 5 days - I would anticipate that this would be shown on my scoresheet as something like the following
22122x1 yyyxxyy
 
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Week 3 task

Fruit and vegetables should be central to a healthy food plan. They not only fill us up so we do not want to eat so much higher calorie stuff - but they are full of nutrients which help us stay healthy.
People may find this link interesting

It would appear that the traditional 5-a-day recommendation is fairly modest compared to the latest scientific thought on the subject.

Many of us do not manage to have 5 portions of fruit or vegetables a day though.

It is all too easy to neglect vegetables in favour of fruit - I am apt to do this myself. Vegetables are often lower in calories because of the natural sugars that are in fruit.

I am going to set as a bonus this week - eating 5 portions of fruit or vegetables every day - but I am going to specify that at least 3 portions of vegetables should be included in this. Filling up on vegetables should assist us in our weight control.

I will give 2 points for every day when you do this.

In the context of the challenge - items that are traditionally considered to be vegetables but botanically fruit such as tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber etc are counted as vegetables...



Potatoes do not count for this challenge.

Mark it on your scoresheet as FFFFFFF if you manage to do this every day.

I will also give you 1 point for every day that you list your food - as you have done in the previous two weeks

Mark it on your scoresheet as LLLLLLL if you manage to do this every day.[/QUOTE]
 
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Week 4 task

For 1 point - continue listing all your food. If complete for all 7 days - this would be reported as LLLLLLL

When we are wanting to lose weight it is important to remember that it is fat weight that we are wanting to lose and not muscle. If we cut our calories without taking care about the nutritional balance that we are having we may not be getting the right kind of fuel that our body needs. Our body's way of dealing with a shortfall is to basically convert our muscle to fuel - and if that happens it is perfectly possible to lose weight but be carrying just as much fat, be less healthy and look just as flabby if not more.

I do know of a lot of authorities that suggest that there are benefits to having a high protein diet and recommend intakes of the order of 1g per pound of lean body weight or 1g per 2 pounds of actual weight... Both these recommendations give quite a high target which people may choose to consider over time...

Fortunately the RDA is much lower - but it is quite important that people have sufficient protein to hit this fairly low RDA... If people do not enjoy protein foods - they may consider this to be a waste of calories - but it isnt.

For 2 points - have sufficient protein to cover the RDA as given on the following link. If complete for all 7 days - this would be reported as PPPPPPP
 
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Week 5 task

When we limit our food to lose weight - it is important that we make sure that we still get enough calcium. We all know that calcium is good for our bones and teeth - but it can be an easy thing to cut back on if we are not fond of milk...

Calcium is also good for weight loss.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/calcium-weight-loss

I will give 2 points to everyone if they ensure that they have their calcium RDA.

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Calcium-HealthProfessional/

For me - that means that I have to have 1200mg calcium every day - but I suspect that most people in the challenge will hit their RDA if they have 1000mg.

Record it on your scoresheet as CCCCCCC if you have it every day.

I will also give 1 point if you list your food. Record it as LLLLLLL
 
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Week 6 task

This time I am going to announce something a little different...

Over the years I have spoken to a number of people that are convinced of the notion that they are better able to control their weight if they are generally in a less cluttered environment. Also that a weight loss project can give you less time to keep things organised if they are setting aside time each day to exercise and plan food - maybe making more food from scratch... I am not aware of studies that back up the idea - but much has been written on the subject:




I am going to let everyone choose a task that they can do - either on a daily basis or across the whole week where they can earn 14 bonus points. They can either allocate a point for doing something if it can be broken down that way (maybe on time spent or something achieved), 2 points per day that something is worked on if you like, or a massive 14 points for accomplishing a task that you think is big enough to warrant it... The choice is yours...

To give you some idea - I have loads of documents and letters which clutter my living room... I am going to work on that aspect of my cluttered life and scan them into my computer filing system and (where possible) shred the papers... I am going to award myself 1 point for every 10 pages that I scan in. If I can manage to scan in all 140 pages in the week I will feel a lot more organised. Some days I may get nothing or very little done... Some days - I may get a lot done... I will just give myself a point every time I get 10 pages done with a maximum of 14 points

Record theses points for becoming more organised as a number between 0 and 14.

I will also give 1 point if you list your food. Record it as LLLLLLL

Maximum points would be recorded as 14 LLLLLLL
 
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This sounds really good Omega. Thanks for making an outstanding contest for us all. My only question is when do we start?
 
It starts Saturday morning. That is tomorrow here - you can use any Friday or Saturday weighing each week so if you weighed today you can use that as your start weight if you want.
 
Thanks Omega! I might use today's weigh in, just to motivate me more because it's higher than my lowest.

For the %age though...looks like we go to 1 decimal - but do we round up ever, or always down? For example I was 133.5 today, if I'm at 131 next week that is 2.5lbs lost and 1.87%. So normally it would round up to 1.9, but in this case would it always be down to 1.8? As you said it will end up catching up to us later anyways, but wanted to confirm that is what you meant: no rounding, simply drop the rest of the digits?
 
I think that there is no point in rounding until the last week. In the last week we can play catch up and round. No-one will lose by it in the long run.
 
My weighing today was on the high side compared to the previous few days... I had gammon stew (with lots of vegetables) last night and I think that I suffered a sodium gain... I was not best pleased after a Thursday of sensible eating and 2 hours of zumba plus a long walk...

I'm quite hoping that my weight is back down tomorrow as I was quite disappointed at my weight today... If it is down a bit I'll use that... I'd prefer to write down the lower number...
 
This challenge sounds great! It will definitely keep me on track!

I do have one question.. I just want to be sure, for the bonus points on the week 1 task, it sort of sounds like I do need to post my list of foods, as well as the analyzation of my moods, but by the same token, it also sounds like I don't need to post it, just do it. Do I need to post these things, and if so, should it be on my team thread?

Sorry - Most people probably understood, I always need more explanation. :)
 
Actually I would like clarification on that as well. To me it sounds like I do write down my food log, but not my moods? Or are we basically going on trust and the honor system where if we say we did it that is enough, no need to prove it?
 
Post your list of foods in your team thread for 2 points.

No need to post the reason for your failings. If you want the extra point though - you do need to analyse what led to them. The whole analysis side is on trust and the honour system. Some of us may feel that their reasons are private and would not want to post on a forum.
 
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I have some brilliant news for everyone. :party:

ChefChiTown has just come back to the forum and is joining the challenge.

I have put him into the purple team. :party:
 
Certainly Cory - that is wonderful - you are in team Orange. :party:

I will put you a scoresheet in the Orange thread really soon - and let you know when it is there.

If you weighed yourself on either Friday or Saturday (yesterday or day before) use whichever you prefer as your start weight.

Think back and you may remember what food you had yesterday and exercise you did - so you can claim yesterday's points.
 
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